A Russian airliner with 159 passengers on board narrowly escaped an al-Qaeda missile, according to an Interfax story appearing on Monday.

Interfax did not implicate al-Qaeda in the attack, however.

“Syrian [officials] informed us that on Monday morning, unidentified forces launched two ground-to-air missiles which exploded in the air very close to a civilian aircraft belonging to a Russian airline,” a source told the Russian agency, according to Russia Today.

“Nowhere in rebel-controlled Syria is there a secular fighting force to speak of.,” the New York Times reported on Saturday.

The Syrian opposition is a creation of the CIA, as is al-Qaeda. Even the U.S. Treasury Department was obliged to admit al-Qaeda dominates the so-called Syrian rebellion. The al-Qaeda franchise in Syria is Jabhat al-Nusra. The Salafist group routinely executes prisoners, beheads its enemies, ransacks Christian churches, and slaughters innocents in terrorist suicide bombings.